![]() ![]() In the mid-to-late 1990s, this became one of the most common types of computer virus. This makes it relatively easy to write computer viruses in VBA, commonly known as macro viruses. VBA has access to most Microsoft Windows system calls and executes when documents are opened. ![]() However, its function has evolved from and replaced the macro languages that were originally included in some of these applications. Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is a programming language included in Microsoft Office and some other applications. Vim also has a scripting language called Vimscript to create macros. It can record into a register (macro) what a person types on the keyboard and it can be replayed or edited just like VBA macros for Microsoft Office. Emacs was originally devised as a set of macros in the editing language TECO it was later ported to dialects of Lisp.Īnother programmer's text editor, Vim (a descendant of vi), also has full implementation of macros. In effect, most of the editor is made of macros. The programmers' text editor Emacs (short for "editing macros") follows this idea to a conclusion. An underlying macro programming language, most commonly a scripting language, with direct access to the features of the application may also exist. They are created by carrying out the sequence once and letting the application record the actions. Keyboard and mouse macros that are created using an application's built-in macro features are sometimes called application macros. For this reason, use of macros is a violation of the TOS or EULA of most MMORPGs, and administrators of MMORPGs fight a continual war to identify and punish macro users. As this money is generated without human intervention, it can dramatically upset the economy of the game. This effect is even larger when a macro-using player operates multiple accounts simultaneously, or operates the accounts for a large amount of time each day. By tirelessly performing a boring, repetitive, but low risk action, a player running a macro can earn a large amount of the game's currency or resources. Keyboard macros have in more recent times come to life as a method of exploiting the economy of massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG)s. They have to some extent fallen into obsolescence following the advent of mouse-driven user interface and the availability of keyboard and mouse macros in applications such as word processors and spreadsheets, making it possible to create application-sensitive keyboard macros. These programs were based on the TSR ( Terminate and stay resident) mode of operation and applied to all keyboard input, no matter in which context it occurred. Separate programs for creating these macros are called macro recorders.ĭuring the 1980s, macro programs – originally SmartKey, then SuperKey, KeyWorks, Prokey – were very popular, first as a means to automatically format screenplays, then for a variety of user input tasks. ![]() In this way, frequently used or repetitive sequences of keystrokes and mouse movements can be automated. Keyboard macros and mouse macros allow short sequences of keystrokes and mouse actions to be transformed into other, usually more time-consuming, sequences of keystrokes and mouse actions. 5 Macros for machine-independent software. ![]() The term derives from " macro instruction", and such expansions were originally used in generating assembly language code. Macros often allow positional or keyword parameters that dictate what the conditional assembler program generates and have been used to create entire programs or program suites according to such variables as operating system, platform or other factors. (Thus, they are called "macros" because a big block of code can be expanded from a small sequence of characters). The term is used to make available to the programmer, a sequence of computing instructions as a single program statement, making the programming task less tedious and less error-prone. In the latter case, they are a tool that allows a programmer to enable code reuse or even to design domain-specific languages. In the former case, macros are used to make tasks using the application less repetitive. A facility for writing macros may be provided as part of a software application or as a part of a programming language. The mapping process that instantiates (transforms) a macro use into a specific sequence is known as macro expansion. A macro (from the Greek μακρό for "big" or "far") in computer science is a rule or pattern that specifies how a certain input sequence (often a sequence of characters) should be mapped to a replacement input sequence (also often a sequence of characters) according to a defined procedure. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |